2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Plant diversity, whether for conservational or aesthetic value, is the recurring theme in public gardens that connects our displays, research, and visitor experiences to our missions. While the domestication of crop species has significantly altered their genomes from that of their wild crop relatives, the majority of horticultural crops are not that far removed from their wild relatives. Thus, we still explore, document, and cultivate the untapped diversity in the world’s temperate floras to enrich our gardens. Since 1927, the United States National Arboretum has been a leader in germplasm collection and utilization. What legacies remain from early plant explorations? How do we document and capture diversity? Where do we go from here, in a century that will see so much lost to globalization?